There are two basic ways of launching into development of a game -- with a narrative or metaphor as a starting point or with a gameplay mechanic. Whichever you choose it greatly influences your development process. In a structured discussion we explore the following questions: How is the process sliced? Which phases can be identified? What comes first? Well, does anything come first? How do you plan for emergent gameplay vs arced stories? What are the main problems and chances of both approaches? Does one or the other suit itself better for certain types of games?

Gunnar Lott was a well-known games journalist from 1998 to 2007. He started as a trainee and went on to become Editor-in-Chief of GameStar, then the world's biggest PC-Gaming magazine. He founded and led two other mags, GamePro Germany and Making Games (a publication for game developers).In... Read More →

Riad Djemili is the co-founder of Berlin indie game company Maschinen-Mensch. Their debut title The Curious Expedition, a fantastical expedition simulation game set in the 19th century, was released in 2015 on Steam Early Access and nominated for the DCP, the most prestigious German... Read More →

Since Reynald joined the industry in the 00’s, he’s done a bit of everything. He worked on MMOs, console titles, mobile games, wrote for a TV animation series and comic books, did some anchoring on TV, was editor of his own games magazine or worked on physical game things like... Read More →

Martin Ganteföhr studied literature and linguistics, but turned towards storytelling in games in 1996. For nearly two decades, he has been working as writer, designer and director in the interactive industry. In 1998, Ganteföhr co-founded House of Tales Entertainment, the first... Read More →

Andreas started his career more than 13 years ago at Blue Byte and worked there in different positions. As Tester, Data Wizard and Level Designer he had the chance to work on products like Battle Isle and Settlers 4. Settlers 5 and Settlers 6 he attended as Lead Game Designer. As... Read More →